Delay in F-35's production set to affect FX project
Lockheed Martin’s F-35
By Kang Seung-woo
Lockheed Martin’s F-35 reportedly faces a possible delay in a full-scale production as the result of a cut in the U.S. defense budget.
This could mean the frontrunner in Korea’s $7.3 billion next-generation fighter project may lose its advantage, making it hard to predict which will be selected.
The F-35 is bidding against Boeing, hoping to sell its F-15 Silent Eagle, and European Aeronautic Defense and Space Company (EADS), touting its Eurofighter Tranche 3 Typhoon, to secure an 8.3 trillion won ($7.3 billion) contract requiring 60 combat planes to replace the Korean Air Force’s obsolete F-4s and F-5s by 2021.
The Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) resumed its price bidding on Tuesday after failing to choose the successful bidder last week, with the three participants placing bids over its procurement price.
According to the Wall Street Journal Monday, the Pentagon was considering delaying its controversial F-35 program, the U.S. military’s most expensive project, as one option to cut its spending over the second half of this decade to comply with the across-the-board budget cuts mandated by Congress.
Beginning in March, the mandatory budget cuts, or sequester, began mandating automatic cuts in all government programs including slashing billions of dollars from the U.S. military’s budget.
The report said that delaying a full production rate of the F-35 would save between $1 billion and $2.5 billion a year between 2015 and 2019.
On the back of low-observable characteristics and billing as the only fifth-generation fighter jet in the three-way race, both of which lured the Korean Air Force, the F-35 is widely viewed as the favorite to win the contract despite its cost overrun, late delivery and technical glitches.
“There is nothing we need to take action on the report,” said DAPA Spokesman Baek Yoon-hyeong.
He added that each bidder has already fixed its delivery timeline assuming that it wins the bid.
The Lockheed Martin side said that a delay is one of the options and the F-35 program has gotten back on track.
The U.S. Air Force has established an F-35A initial operating capability (IOC) target date of December 2016. The F-35A is an Air Force variant and the IOC means that the stealth jet can conduct basic close air support, interdiction, and limited suppression and destruction of enemy air defense operations in a contested environment.
The procurement office, determined to purchase 60 aircraft within budget constraints, plans to keep the bidding alive until at least one fighter jet satisfies the budget target, but there is speculation that neither of them will be able to place bids below the procurement price.